Tanner Belknap with Star Valley Trout Unlimited spoke with SVI Media’s Dan Dockstader during Saturday’s fundraiser held in Alpine. Belknap discussed how the funds raised will be used for specific projects along the Salt River in Star Valley.

(0:00) Tanner Belknap visiting with SBI now. We’re at the (0:03) Civic Center in Alpine. He just got done doing a presentation to a packed house.

Tanner, (0:08) what was your message to Trout Unlimited in Alpine tonight? Yeah, it was for Star Valley (0:14) Trout Unlimited was hosting the flying fishing film tour here at the Civic Center and I was (0:20) just presenting on, you know, the issues facing us in the Salt River and what it is that I’m (0:25) working on, all the projects we’ve done in the past and then all the major projects we’ve got (0:31) coming up here soon and what it is we’re trying to raise money for and just all the benefits we’re (0:37) hoping to bring to this fishery in this community. Remind us all the work that you’ve done in the (0:42) Salt River watershed, your projects and so forth, just give us a flyover if you would. Yeah, the (0:47) scope of the work that’s been done so far, about one mile of restoration work on Lower Swift Creek, (0:53) 6.6 miles of restoration work on Tin Cup Creek, (0:57) fish ladders on the East Side Canal Diversion and on the Crow Creek Diversion (1:04) and about a third of a mile and a fish passage barrier removal on the Rico Diversion Project (1:09) on the Salt River near Aetna.

Okay, that’s been a lot of work. You put a lot of time, energy (1:14) and research into it to just remind people that you just don’t approach this, you actually (1:18) research it out and then carry it out and it takes time to make it all happen. Yeah, we try to (1:23) be very thoughtful about our approaches and where we decide to do projects.

That’s part of the reason (1:28) right now we’ve got a few water quality studies coming up on the Salt River for E. coli, nutrients, (1:36) metals, sediment and temperatures and as well as flow rates all around the Salt River and its (1:45) tributaries to just give us a better understanding of where there are issues so we can start to (1:50) address some of those issues. Very good. A closing thought as we go back into this dinner presentation (1:56) tonight, again you spoke to a packed house, a closing thought here on Star Valley Trout Unlimited.

(2:02) I think just hope for the future. We’ve got one mile of restoration coming up at Clark’s Barn (2:08) this summer on the Salt River, two and a half miles in the narrows of restoration work, (2:14) either this fall or next fall and just that we’re raising money so that we can get design (2:20) started on these projects and get the projects built and just continue to chip away at improving (2:26) this fishery, our water quality and strengthening our community and our local economy. Tanner Pilknap (2:31) overseeing the Salt River Watershed for Star Valley Trout Unlimited.

Dan Dockstader, SBI Media in Alpine.